Electric vehicles have proven to be a viable alternative to gasoline-powered cars. The increasing demand for electric vehicles has placed importance on the development of the associated technology and the planning of an infrastructure that will support the many electric vehicles that will be on the roads in the future.
Regarding safety, many current electric vehicle designs rely on a rigidity of a battery pack itself to protect the battery cells from damage caused by a collision impact. For example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 8,210,301 and 9,045,030 depict battery packs for electric vehicles that include integrated rigid frame structures that absorb energy during an impact event to protect the battery cells that are also disposed in the battery packs.
This configuration suffers from some drawbacks. In particular, the internal frame structure adds weight to the battery packs, rendering an associated installation process more cumbersome and difficult. Moreover, the design requires the battery pack to be precisely positioned within the vehicle such that impact forces are properly transferred from the vehicle frame to the battery pack. These positioning requirements would further complicate and lengthen an associated installation process.
The present disclosure is directed to overcoming one or more problems of the prior art.